Pope Francis Recommends 3 Attitudes for Confession and Tells Priests "As dispensers of God’s forgiveness, it is important to be “men of mercy”

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE COMMUNITY OF THE COLLEGE OF VATICAN PENITENTIARIES
Consistory Hall - Thursday, 24 October 2024
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Dear brothers and sisters, Your Eminence, good morning!
I greet Father Vincenzo Cosatti and all of you. I am happy to meet you on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the entrustment to the Friars Minor Conventual of the ministry of Confessions in St. Peter's Basilica (cf. Clement XIV, Motu proprio Miserator Dominus, 10 August 1774). Clement XIV did it, perhaps one of the good things he did. But, poor man, he did the others under the inspiration of this friar of yours, Bontempi, who I believe is still in hell [they laugh], but I am not sure. When Clement XIV died, Bontempi took refuge in the Spanish Embassy, ​​because he was afraid. After a few months, when there was peace, he went to the General and said: “Father General, I bring three Bulls here. [In exchange I ask] first, that I may have money – Franciscan! –; second, that I may live outside the community; and third, that I may travel where I want”. And the General, a wise Conventual, took the Bulls: “But dear, one is missing” – “Which one, Father?”. “The one that ensures the salvation of your soul!”. This is historic, because he had deceived Pope Ganganelli with all these things. Bontempi was a sly one!
Every day, St. Peter’s Basilica is visited by more than forty thousand people, every day! Many come from far away and face journeys, expenses and long lines to get there; others come for tourism, the majority. But many of them come to pray at the tomb of the First of the Apostles, to confirm their faith and their communion with the Church and to entrust to the Lord dear intentions, or to dissolve vows they have made. Others, even of different faiths, enter as “tourists”, attracted by the beauty, the history, the charm of art. But in all of them there is, consciously or unconsciously, a single great search: the search for God, Beauty and eternal Goodness, whose desire lives and beats in every heart of man and woman who lives in this world. The desire for God.
And your presence in this context is important. For the faithful and pilgrims, because it allows them to meet the Lord of mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Dearest, forgive everything, everything, everything. Always do it: forgive everything! We are for forgiving, someone else will be for arguing! And for all the others, because it shows them that the Church welcomes them first of all as a community of the saved, the forgiven, who believe, hope and love in the light and with the strength of God's tenderness. Let us therefore pause for a moment to reflect on the ministry that you carry out, underlining three particular aspects: humility, listening and mercy.
First: humility. The Apostle Peter, a forgiven disciple, teaches us this, who comes to shed his blood in martyrdom only after having cried humbly for his own sins (Lk 22:56-62). He reminds us that every Apostle - and every Penitentiary - carries the treasure of grace that he dispenses in an earthen vessel, "so that this extraordinary power may be seen to belong to God and not to us" (2 Cor 4:7). Therefore, dear brothers, to be good confessors, let us be “the first penitents seeking forgiveness” (Bull Misericordiae Vultus, 17), spreading under the imposing vaults of the Vatican Basilica the fragrance of a humble prayer that implores and implores mercy.
Second: listening, for everyone, and especially for the young and the little ones. This is the testimony of Peter the shepherd, who walks among his flock and who grows in listening to the Spirit through the voice of his brothers (Acts 10:34-48). Listening is not in fact just listening to what people say, but first of all welcoming their words as a gift from God for one’s own conversion, docilely, like clay in the hands of the potter (cf. Is 64:7). In this regard, it will do us good to never forget that “By truly listening to our brother in the sacramental conversation, we listen to Jesus himself, poor and humble […] we become listeners of the Word” (Address to the participants in the Course on the Internal Forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary, March 9, 2018), and that only in this way can we hope to offer him the greatest service: that of putting him “in contact with Jesus” (ibid.). Listen, not so much ask; don’t act like a psychiatrist, please: listen, always listen, with meekness. And when you see that there is a penitent who is starting to have a bit of difficulty, because he is ashamed, say “I understand”; I didn’t understand anything, but I understood; God understood and that is important. A great Cardinal Penitentiary taught me this: “I understand”, the Lord understood. But please don’t act like a psychiatrist, the less you say the better: listen, console and forgive. You are there to forgive!
Finally, third: mercy. As dispensers of God’s forgiveness, it is important to be “men of mercy”, cheerful, generous men, ready to understand and console, in words and attitudes. Here too Peter is an example to us, with his speeches full of forgiveness (see Acts 3:12-20). The confessor – a clay vessel, as we have said – has only one medicine to pour on the wounds of his brothers: the mercy of God. Those three aspects of God: closeness, mercy and compassion. The confessor must be close, merciful and compassionate. When a confessor begins to ask… No, you are acting like a psychiatrist, stop, please. This was taught by Saint Leopold Mandić, who loved to repeat: “Why should we humiliate even more the souls who come to prostrate themselves at our feet? Aren’t they humiliated enough already? Did Jesus humiliate the tax collector, the adulteress, the Magdalene?”; and he added: “And if the Lord were to reproach me for being too generous, I could say to him: ‘Blessed Lord, you gave me this bad example, dying on the cross for souls, moved by your divine charity’” (cf. Lorenzo da Fara, Leopoldo Mandic. Humanity, holiness, Velar, 1989). May the Lord give us the grace to be able to repeat the same words!
Sometimes I have told the story of that Capuchin who is a confessor in Buenos Aires – I don’t know if I told it to you –, I made him a Cardinal, not this time, the other time. He is 96 years old and continues to hear confessions; I went to him, forgive everything! Once he came to tell me that he was afraid of forgiving too much. “And what do you do?”, I said to him. “I go before the Lord: Lord, forgive me? I’m sorry, I forgave too much! But be careful, it was You who gave me the bad example!”. Always forgive, everything and without asking for many things. And if I don't understand? God understands, you go ahead! May they feel mercy.
Dear brothers, thank you for your service, for your assiduity and patience, for your faithfulness! My confessor died a few months ago, I go to confess to you, at St. Peter's. You do well! Thank you for being, in the heart of the Church, ministers of the sacramental presence of God-love. Continue your ministry like this: in humility - I am worse than you -; in listening, and not so much in questions; and in mercy.
Please, don't forget to pray for me. And every time I come to you, forgive me, of course.